While the transfer has been 'in the works for a while,' it hadn't progressedbeyond the planning stages.

'It has not been launched, and we have not issued any kind of schedule,' Eastsaid. 'June 2002 is a good day to work from,' she said of Cox's targetedcompletion date.

Cox was conducting meetings Wednesday morning to finalize plans on how toservice its customers if Excite@Home were to get approval Friday to shut downand then do so.

'We're hoping that it doesn't occur,' she said. 'It's not the best thing forour customers or Excite's other customers.'

The hearing, she added, will determine if Excite@Home has the right to shutdown, but it doesn't necessarily mean the high-speed-data provider will shut offservice.

'If they do [decide to shut down] immediately, we hope that there would be atransition period,' she added. 'Depending on the length of time, we haveoptions.'

The hearing will also go over the value of Excite@Home's assets, which it hadannounced that it would sell to AT&T Corp. for $307 million.

A creditor committee and a shareholder group argued that the company is worthmore. Cox hopes that because negotiations are going well with the creditors,'Friday becomes a nonissue,' East said.

Cox's efforts won't affect the reorganization plan submitted to thebankruptcy judge last week by a group of Excite@Home shareholders.

'We factored in the loss of Cox after the completion of their 2002 contractexpiration,' said Frank Thomas, group spokesman and a drafter of the plan. 'Ipersonally believe that when we are successful with an independent ATHM[Excite@Home's stock symbol] out of bankruptcy, [Cox] will be back in the foldwith ATHM within three years.'

Thomas added, 'It doesn't make sense to manufacture your own microprocessorsif you are Dell [Computer Corp.] and there is an Intel [Corp.] around, and itwon't make sense to try to keep up with the economies of scale of an independentATHM network if you are Cox.'

Although the company wouldn't say when or where work will start, both ADCTelecommunications Inc. and Riverstone Networks Inc. announced that they wouldsupply the effort.